7 nm process
In semiconductor manufacturing, the "7 nm" process is a term for the MOSFET technology node following the "10 nm" node, defined by the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems, which was preceded by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. It is based on FinFET technology, a type of multi-gate MOSFET technology.
As of 2021, the IRDS Lithography standard gives a table of dimensions for the "7 nm" node, with examples given below:
| Calculated Value | nm |
| Minimum half pitch | 18 |
| Minimum half pitch | 15 |
| Minimum required overlay | 3.6 |
| Gate pitch | 54 |
| Gate length | 20 |
The 2021 IRDS Lithography standard is a retrospective document, as the first volume production of a "7 nm" branded process was in 2016 with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's production of 256Mbit SRAM memory chips using a "7nm" process called N7. Samsung started mass production of their "7nm" process devices in 2018. These process nodes had the same approximate transistor density as Intel's "10 nm Enhanced Superfin" node, later rebranded "Intel 7."
Since at least 1997, the length scale of a process node has not referred to any particular dimension on the integrated circuits, such as gate length, metal pitch, or gate pitch, as new lithography processes no longer uniformly shrank all features on a chip. By the late 2010s, the length scale had become a commercial name that indicated a new generation of process technologies, without any relation to physical properties. Previous ITRS and IRDS standards had insufficient guidance on process node naming conventions to address the widely varying dimensions on a chip, leading to a divergence between how foundries branded their lithography and the actual dimensions their process nodes achieved.
The first mainstream "7nm" mobile processor intended for mass market use, the Apple A12 Bionic, was announced at Apple's September 2018 event. Although Huawei announced its own "7nm" processor before the Apple A12 Bionic, the Kirin 980 on August 31, 2018, the Apple A12 Bionic was released for public, mass market use to consumers before the Kirin 980. Both chips were manufactured by TSMC.
In 2019, AMD released their "Rome" processors for servers and datacenters, which are based on TSMC's N7node and feature up to 64 cores and 128 threads. They also released their "Matisse" consumer desktop processors with up to 16 cores and 32 threads. However, the I/O die on the Rome multi-chip module is fabricated with the GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, while the Matisse's I/O die uses the GlobalFoundries' "12nm" process. The Radeon RX 5000 series is also based on TSMC's N7 process.
History
Technology Demonstrations
In the early 2000s, researchers began demonstrating 7 nm level MOSFETs, with an IBM team including Bruce Doris, Omer Dokumaci, Meikei Ieong, and Anda Mocuta successfully fabricating a 6 nm silicon-on-insulator MOSFET. Shortly after, in 2003, NEC's researchers Hitoshi Wakabayashi and Shigeharu Yamagami advanced further by fabricating a 5 nm MOSFET.In July 2015, IBM announced that they had built the first functional transistors with "7nm" technology, using a silicon-germanium process. With further development in February 2017, TSMC produced 256Mbit SRAM memory cells using their "7nm" process, with a cell area of 0.027 square micrometers, giving a square minimum feature size:
This cumulated in TSMC starting volume of 7 nm production in 2018.
Expected commercialization and technologies
In 2015, Intel expected that at the 7 nm node, III–V semiconductors would have to be used in transistors, signaling a shift away from silicon.In April 2016, TSMC announced that "7nm" trial production would begin in the first half of 2017. In April 2017, TSMC began risk production of 256Mbit SRAM memory chips using a "7nm" process, with extreme ultraviolet lithography. TSMC's "7nm" production plans, as of early 2017, was to use deep ultraviolet immersion lithography initially on this process node, and transition from risk to commercial volume manufacturing from Q2 2017 to Q2 2018. Also, their later generation "7nm" production was planned to use EUV multiple patterning and have an estimated transition from risk to volume manufacturing between 2018 and 2019.
In September 2016, GlobalFoundries announced trial production in the second half of 2017 and risk production in early 2018, with test chips already running.
In February 2017, Intel announced Fab 42 in Chandler, Arizona, which was according to press releases at that time expected to produce microprocessors using a "7nm" manufacturing process. The company had not, at that time, published any expected values for feature lengths at this process node.
In April 2018, TSMC announced volume production of "7nm" chips. In June 2018, the company announced mass production ramp up.
In May 2018, Samsung announced production of "7nm" chips for later that year. ASML Holding NV is their main supplier of EUV lithography machines.
In August 2018, GlobalFoundries announced it was stopping development of "7nm" chips, citing cost.
On October 28, 2018, Samsung announced their second generation "7nm" process had entered risk production and was at that time expected to have entered mass production by 2019.
On January 17, 2019, for the Q4 2018 earnings call, TSMC mentioned that different customers would have "different flavors" of second generation "7nm".
On April 16, 2019, TSMC announced their "6nm" process called, which was, according to a press release made on April 16, 2019, at that time expected to have been in mass products from 2021. N6 was at that time expected to have used EUVL in up to 5 layers, compared to up to 4 layers in their N7+ process.
On July 28, 2019, TSMC announced their second gen "7nm" process called N7P, which was projected to have been DUV-based like their N7 process. Since N7P was fully IP-compatible with the original "7nm", while N7+ was not, N7+ was to have been a separate process from "7nm". N6, another EUV-based process, was at that time planned to have been released later than even TSMC's "5nm" process, with the IP-compatibility with N7. At their Q1 2019 earnings call, TSMC reiterated their Q4 2018 statement that N7+ was at that time expected to have generated less than $1 billion TWD in revenue in 2019.
On October 5, 2019, AMD announced their EPYC Roadmap, featuring Milan chips built using TSMC's N7+ process.
On October 7, 2019, TSMC announced they had started delivering N7+ products to market in high volume.
On July 26, 2021, Intel announced their new manufacturing roadmap, renaming all of their future process nodes. Intel's "10nm" Enhanced SuperFin, which was roughly equivalent to TSMC's N7 process, would thenceforth be known as "Intel 7", while their earlier "7nm" process would erstwhile be called "Intel 4". As a result, Intel's first processors based on Intel 7 were at that time planned to have started shipping by the second half of 2022, whereas Intel announced earlier that they were planning to have launched "7nm" processors in 2023.
Technology commercialization
In June 2018, AMD announced 7 nm Radeon Instinct GPUs launching in the second half of 2018. In August 2018, the company confirmed the release of the GPUs.On August 21, 2018, Huawei announced their HiSilicon Kirin 980 SoC to be used in their Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro built using TSMC's 7 nm process.
On September 12, 2018, Apple announced their A12 Bionic chip used in iPhone XS and iPhone XR built using TSMC's 7 nm process. The A12 processor became the first 7 nm chip for mass market use as it released before the Huawei Mate 20. On October 30, 2018, Apple announced their A12X Bionic chip used in iPad Pro built using TSMC's 7 nm process.
On December 4, 2018, Qualcomm announced their Snapdragon 855 and 8cx built using TSMC's 7 nm process. The first mass product featuring the Snapdragon 855 was the Lenovo Z5 Pro GT, which was announced on December 18, 2018.
On May 29, 2019, MediaTek announced their 5G SoC built using a TSMC 7 nm process.
On July 7, 2019, AMD officially launched their Ryzen 3000 series of central processing units, based on the TSMC 7 nm process and Zen 2 microarchitecture.
On August 6, 2019, Samsung announced their Exynos 9825 SoC, the first chip built using their 7LPP process. The Exynos 9825 is the first mass market chip built featuring EUVL.
On September 6, 2019, Huawei announced their HiSilicon Kirin 990 4G & 990 5G SoCs, built using TSMC's N7 and N7+ processes.
On September 10, 2019, Apple announced their A13 Bionic chip used in iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro built using TSMC's 2nd gen N7P process.
7 nm manufacturing made up 36% of TSMC's revenue in the second quarter of 2020.
On August 17, 2020, IBM announced their Power10 processor.
On July 26, 2021, Intel announced that their Alder Lake processors would be manufactured using their newly rebranded "Intel 7" process, previously known as "10nm Enhanced SuperFin". These processors were, at that time, expected based on press releases to have been planned to have been released in the second half of 2021. The company earlier confirmed a 7 nm, now called "Intel 4", microprocessor family called Meteor Lake to be released in 2023.